Program Curriculum

Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) is comprehensive, interdisciplinary care for patients with advanced, progressive, life-threatening illnesses and their families. The UCF/HCA GME Consortium Palliative Medicine Fellowship at North Florida Hospital. is designed to educate residents to provide expert palliative care to diverse populations. The fellowship also provides fellows with the skills required to disseminate the principles of palliative medicine by providing a broad exposure to all aspects of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

This curriculum closely follows the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Core Competencies Version 2.3 from September 2009 developed by the ACGME HPM Competencies Project Work Group. Fellows participate in a wide range of experiences giving them a rich breadth and depth of patients, diseases and settings. This includes the inpatient hospice and palliative medicine consult service, home hospice, pediatrics, long-term care, longitudinal ambulatory oncology clinic and an oncology elective. Fellows participate in an interdisciplinary approach aimed at helping patients and their families achieve the best possible quality of life throughout the course of a life-threatening illness.

The fellowship’s affiliation with Haven Hospice, a large local, non-for-profit hospice, provides for a very rich experience in hospice with opportunities for fellows to acquire skills necessary to perform as hospice medical directors. This helps ensure that fellows obtain experience managing patients longitudinally and across settings.

During the one-year fellowship, fellows will gain expertise in the following domains:

  • Communication (ICS, PC, Prof)
  • Ethical and legal decision making (SBP, Prof, PBL, MK, PC)
  • Pain in cancer and non-cancer patients (MK)
  • Management of non-pain symptoms (MK)
  • Medical co-morbidities and complications in populations with life threatening diseases (MK, PC)
  • Pediatric palliative medicine (PC)
  • Hospice administration (SBP)
  • Neuro-psychiatric co-morbidities in populations with life-threatening diseases (MK)
  • Psychosocial and spiritual support (PC, ICS, SBP, Prof)
  • Death and dying (PC, MK)
  • Bereavement (PC, MK)
  • Quality improvement in populations with advanced illnesses (PBLI)
  • The hospice and palliative approach to care (SPB)
  • Interdisciplinary teamwork (SBP, Prof, ICS)
  • Chemical dependency impact on Patient Care (PC, MK)